Power star and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan, who speaks of lofty ideals and principles in politics, has surprisingly remained silent over the alleged tonsure of a Dalit youth in the residence of his party leader, controversial Telugu film maker, and Bigg Boss-3 participant Nutan Naidu on Friday.
It may be mentioned that Nutan Naidu, a die hard fan of Pawan Kalyan, made a film – Parannajeevi, against maverick film maker Ram Gopal Varma, as a counter to the latter’s satirical film Powerstar.
A special investigating team headed by Additional Commissioner of Police for SC/ST cases Trinath on Saturday obtained video footage from the residence of Nutan Naidu in Visakhapatnam and found that Naidu had, indeed, ordered tonsuring of Dalit youth Karri Srikanth in an alleged mobile phone theft case.
Srikanth had worked as a servant in Nutan Naidu’s residence during the lockdown period and later quit the job recently. On Friday, Naidu and his wife Madhu Priya, had called Srikanth to their home and beat him up alleging that he had stolen their mobile phone.
When Srikanth refused to admit the crime, Naidu had got him tonsured and beat him up again. When the issue became a big news with Srikanth complaining to the media, Nutan argued that it was Srikanth who had got his head tonsured as a penance for stealing the mobile phone.
Visakhapatnam police commissioner Manish Kumar Sinha said the evidence obtained from CCTV camera footage clearly showed it was Nutan who had got the head of Srinath tonsured.
“It looks like some footage of the video was removed. We are trying to get it back,” he said.
The Pendurthy police booked cases against Nutan Naidu, his wife Madhu Priya and seven others under various sections of IPC, besides SC/ST Act.
So far, there has been no comment either from Pawan Kalyan or his party, though Nutan Naidu has claimed himself a Jana Sena leader.